Guardian News
Children's centres rebranded in service shake-up
3:42pm Monday 6th February 2012
WINSFORD’S children centres have been renamed following changes to the services they provide.
The newly branded Early Support Centres, run by Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC), provide information, support and services for families across the town.
Centres in Wharton, Over and Greenfields bring together health visitors, midwives, speech and language professionals, as well as offering activities for children and families to get involved in.
However, in a bid to make these services more cost effective centres across the borough will be split into two types, ‘hubs’ (larger centre) and ‘spokes’ (smaller centres).
Over will become the main ‘hub’, offering additional services to centres in Wharton and Greenfields, which will become ‘spokes’.
The council says its aim is to target the most vulnerable and provide “capacity to swiftly reshape service delivery in response to emerging needs” with fewer centre managers and business support staff.
For some smaller centres this means there will be some non-service delivery days and users may have to travel to their nearest hub.
Clr Mark Stocks, Cheshire West and Chester Council’s portfolio holder for children and young people’s services said: “Our Early Support Centres are a real success story.
“They show how partners within the public sector can work together to provide effective, accessible, joined-up services to families who most need our support.
“The recent changes will not affect service deliver. People will be able to access the hub-centres five days a week and all of the usual services offered at ‘spoke’ centres will remain untouched but might simply be rescheduled to a different day.
“If you live near a ‘spoke’ centre, you can phone or visit your ‘hub’ centre on a non-service delivery day and all of the professionals that you need will be on hand.”